Last year my mom and I joined forces and made her two jackets. It was an easy way for her to learn more about sewing, to be involved in the process of making, and to get a quality sewn garments. One of those jackets was this pink one, made of a gorgeous raw silk boucle. Unfortunately, I didn't snap a photo of the finished jacket, hoping I'd photograph it on mom, but that never happened. So I'll have to use this pic.

Not much had left from the boucle, a strip of fabric, approximately 40 cm long, which was a shame not to use. I had some purple fabric in my stash, not enough to make a garment of it, and I thought the two fabrics could make a nice simple skirt. I left it to mom to sew the skirt. However, things started moving in the wrong direction once she started sewing. One mistake followed the other and mom finally gave up, having a skirt that was asymmetrical, too short and with striking flaws.

I don't have the before pictures to show you. The idea was to place the purple fabric on the top of the skirt and the pink one on the bottom. However, mom miscalculated the length and cut the top pieces too short, ending up with a skirt that was 2-3 cm shorter than needed, and with no fabric for hemming. She pressed SAs on the horizontal seams in one direction, making huge bulks that accentuated her tummy. She tried to fix this by topstitching the seams, which didn't result the way she had expected, since you can not reduce the bulk this way. She applied a lining with right side towards the skirt, leaving the lining seams visible. Finally, she sewed the belt slightly off, which made the skirt look asymmetrical. What my mom hasn't learned yet is that sometimes she needs to rip off a few seams. Every beginner makes this type of mistakes.

However, even with those flaws, the skirt fitted her well, the model was so right for her, and I wanted to fix it - it would have been a shame to waste all her effort and the fabric. I ripped off the belt, lining and zipper, along with horizontal topstitching. The horizontal seams were pressed open, which reduced thickness of the fabric. I cut off a strip of fabric from the bottom of the skirt, approximately 15 cm long, and sewed on a strip of purple fabric, 25 cm long. I made a kick pleat on the center back, to allow comfortable movement. The skirt isn't hemmed yet - mom will hem it when she defines the needed length. I'm glad she got a nice skirt that makes a lovely suit with the jacket. I just hope I'll manage to snap some photos of the outfit.

Dear readers, I can't believe what happened. I found out last night I qualified for the TR Platforms Final 2013! In the previous post I expressed a doubt regarding my further qualifications, since I was sure my works were not good enough to get me to the finals. I wanted to be realistic with myself. As it turned out, I was quite unrealistic :D!

Out of 200 candidates from all over the world, that attended one of the five TR Masterclass groups, 50 of us qualified for the finals. Aneta Tošić from Serbia, Divna Jurić Davidović from Croatia and myself are the only three persons that represent ex-YU countries in this competition. I invite you to support us in the further placement, since an audience will have the final say this time. The viewers will choose the best works and will be able to challenge the contestants. The five best participants will be selected at the end of the competition. If you want to follow the finals, click "Like" on the TR Platforms Final 2013's Facebook page. The competition starts in February, there's not much time left!

What's coming next for the 10 best students from my group is entering the TR Finale, that starts in February. The best candidates from the previous four groups have already been presented on the finale's Facebook page, and I tell you they are extremely talented and imaginative. To be honest, I don't think I'll qualify for the finale, since some of my latest works didn't get the best grades, and there are a lot of very talented candidates in my group.

I know I didn'd do my best during the course. Many times I had to work in a rush, and sometimes I simply did the tasks with half of my energy, since I hadn't had enough time to sew in a rhythm I was used to. A few times I was frustrated because I didn't have all the tools that were required for a nice, quality work - this mostly refers to the pressing equipment; a professional steam iron, and a few more pressing tools would have been quite helpful. Another issue distracted me too - I didn't want to use nice, quality fabrics on experimental non wearable patterns, so I was restricted to the fabric remnants from my stash. This affected the design and appearance of my works.

However, I am satisfied with my outcome. When I enrolled the course, I had no idea it would become a competition and that there was a finale at the end. I just wanted to learn some new techniques from the master whose work I had been following for years. I wasn't indifferent either, since I'm a very competitive person. I had ambitions to be the best in the group and to qualify for the finale. After the success I had in the first half of the course, I started believing it was actually achievable. However, the second part of the course was a true challenge and far more difficult than the first part - we had much more serious tasks and half the time to finish them, and I had more and more personal things to do that I couldn't reschedule. The first item I didn't do well almost made me give up; my ambition is that strong that I usually follow the "all or nothing" motto. I had almost given up the course. Wise words from a fellow participant were a wake up call, and I'm very thankful to her for that!

I've learnt a lot in these two and a half months and I am very inspired by the technique as well as the fantastic works my fellow participants did. The experience is really amazing and I couldn't praise it enough. Shingo Sato has announced a new masterclass that should start in May 2013. If you're interested in it, I highly recommend it, but be aware of the amount of work you'll have, since it's not an easy course.

The 15th task for the TR Masterclass was to integrate sleeve with a blouse, with a few directions: the sleeve was supposed to be reconstructed so that a classical arm hole was avoided. The blouse and sleeve were drafted according to my design. This time, the fabric I chose defined the shape (it's a very soft fabric that drapes well), so I made pleats on the sleeves and blouse. I tried to match all the plaids wherever it was possible.

After finishing my previous task, I decided to take a few days off and enjoy in some activities other than sewing.

However, I had to start working for a next task soon afterwards. This time we were supposed to integrate a sleeve into the pattern, in a very unusual way. A classic armscye seam was replaces by a curvy seam that connects a sleeve with a bodice. I used two different fabrics, one being plain and the other striped. I was hoping the two would provide a better contrast than they did, but I hope the seam is visible enough.

I wasn't pleased with the photos above, since the seam line was almost invisible. Those pics were taken at night with a flash, and afterwards I tried to fix the brightness and contrast. This morning I snapped a few more photos again, and hope the lines are more prominent now.

Task no. 12 represents reconstruction of a blouse with peplum, by making vertical curved seams. I didn't have contrasting fabrics so I emphasized the seams by contrasting topstitching. I'm not pleased with this work, and after making it my mojo was quite down, I even started doubting in myself and questioning if I was up with the task and course. I mean, two bad works in a row were too much for me and my ego. Thanks to supporting words from a girl from my group I managed to get together and encourage myself. However, I knew the next work needed to be prefect.

Finally, I thought you'd be intersted to know Shingo Sato had announced forming a new masterclass group, that would start working on May 2013. For more information, I suggest visiting Shingo Sato's Facebook profile.

Here's my latest work for the TR Masterclass. We were supposed to integrate two boxes - a rectangular one and a triangular one - into a pattern. I have to admit this task gave me a headache, and I am not satisfied by the end result, since I know this should look much better. Well, what's done is done, I console myself it's important I met the deadline.

I've been sewing these days non-stop. I've started dreaming of some spare time for other activities. Most of all, I'm overwhelmed by different commitments that need to be worked on simultaneously. So far I've been defining a working rhythm, according to my mood. However, with constant commitments I have for the TR Masterclass and the Sew News magazine, I'm no longer in a position to wait for the working mojo to appear, and I need to define a working schedule in order to complete my duties in time. I've enlisted all the tasks I'm juggling at the moment, and defined their priorities, deadlines and difficulties, and here's what's waiting for me on a working desk:

Add to this patterns and garments I have to make for the SITAM exam (even though the exam hasn't been scheduled yet, a rough plan is to set a date on spring, and I need to have at least some of the required garments made by then): a skirt, a pair of pants, a blouse, a dress, a jacket (as a minimum).

What confuses me in these situations is not the logical schedule, but my desire to work on a certain garment. For example, I'm in a mood to sew a new coat. Also, I'd like to finish the dress for a friend ASAP, because I'm afraid my working enthusiasm would disappear if the project is taking too long to finish. My ambition to prove myself on the TR Masterclass is really high, and it's very important to me to finish each task well and neatly, which requires time. And off course, I want to get the best grade on the SITAM exam, which means I need to sew a lot of garments (more than the required minimum), and they need to be sewed perfectly, which requires time and concentration.

Let me explain myself. I started using makeup when I was 17-18. As a beginner, I didn't know what looked best on me and which colors suited me, so I used a specialized literature. I borrowed a makeup book guide and found out there was a so called color analysis which recognized four basic types of people, based on their appearances, meaning colors of their skin, hair and eyes. I recognized myself as a pale dark haired girl, and concluded I was a Winter. And Winters suited cool bright colors. I started using silver and gray eye shadows and red lipstick and ended up looking like this:

Years later I was aware I wasn't a typical Winter, since only some of the bright colors suited me. As an example, this shade of blue (which is the only shade of light blues I like) makes me look very washed out.

But, if I'm not a Winter, which type am I? After reading Peter's post, I decided to determine my coloring. For the last few days I've been studying over the internet all the articles I could find about color analysis and found out there were, beside the basic four types, several more sub types, that closely and more accurately defined one's colors.

Along with the basic characteristics, hue / saturation and coolness / softness of one's colors is considered.

I realized there were two sub types that looked like me: Deep Winter and Deep Autumn. These types blend into each other and their major characteristics are deep contrasts in basic skin, hair and eyes colors, along with the bright colors that suit the wearer. The difference is in the skin tone: Deep Winter has a blueish undertone, while Deep Autumn has a yellowish one. That's when I started thinking I wasn't Winter at all, but a Autumn. It was a big surprise to me, since I've always related Autumn to orange - brownish tones, with red hair and green eyes (a stereotype).

So I started digging in my photos, determined to see myself objectively. I found two pictures where I had no makeup, but I tanned a bit. As you can see, my skin has an olive undertone. Hair has a discrete red pigment and it's dark brown, not black. Eyes are mixture of olive green and light brown. And these are typical characteristics of Deep Autumn.

And here's a proof not all typical earthy colors are for me. The yellow - gray looks much better on me than light suit in ivory, gold and olive. However, this is what color analysis have recommended to the Deep Autumn - to wear contrasting colors.

Here's a new task, or should I say three new tasks? We were supposed to make three pockets, following the given instructions. The first one looks like a welt pocket with a twist. The second one has a third dimension and a shape of the letter "V". The third one actually has two pockets, one placed inside the other.

With this task we have officially entered a second phase of the course, which has a slightly different rules. There are no more disqualifications from the masterclass, and each task will be graded by Shingo Sato himself. Also, the instructions we are given are less detailed than usual, and the participants are expected to work faster, in shortened time frames. The ones who fail to complete the task in time won't be evaluated, meaning they'll have less total score. Also, we're gonna multitask, working simultaneously on several tasks. It's gonna be interesting!

2012 is behind us and I can't help but thinking about how it was. It was, at least, turbulent! It was marked by serious life decisions, that appeared to be made in a rush, but I haven't regret for any of them.

From a sewing point of view, I have to admit 2012 wasn't spectacular. I'd never sewn less, and the items I made were not all that eye catchy. It's not that they were bad, but I think I didn't do my best, even tough the whole year was all about sewing.

At the end of 2011 I enrolled the sewing course at SITAM school, which didn't fulfill my expectations. Due to some personal issues I decided to leave the course a month before the end, and I didn't go to Italy to the final exam. It was a personal defeat to me, since I had thought pattern construction course would be a dream come true to me. However, a new chance came my way, quite unexpectedly. The school's owner, Mr. Padovani, personally invited me to take the exam when I'm ready. I med him in the school, when he visited Belgrade, and he gave me a lot of compliments for my work. He was surprised I didn't take the exam, and offered me to complete this formality in a new term. I plan to use this chance and I am very grateful for the new opportunity, but I'll have to schedule the exam according to the other responsibilities. Therefore, we haven't scheduled the exam yet.

However, the Shingo Sato's course brought back my sewing mojo and inspiration. The last creation I worked on, the Nougat dress, is an item I am very proud of and I can't wait to finish it and show it in all its glory.

Emotionally, the 2102 wasn't dull at all; it was rather surprising, in fact.

I met my husband in April. No, you haven't misunderstood me, we've been knowing each other for eight months only! It took us a month and a half to realize that what we had was exactly what we needed and so we decided to get married. I'm not a romantic girl, so there was no wedding ring, no special dinner nor a proposal with him on the knees. Actually, I was the one who proposed him with the words "let's get married!". It took him two microseconds to reply :). Our friends and family were in shock, and everyone assumed I was pregnant, because no one understood our rush.

An unexpected wedding forced me to solve a housing issue. For the pas four years I had been in a search for a flat. I was close to buying several times, but each time a different problem stopped me (once it was a price, the other time the mortgage conditions weren't acceptable, the third time the contractor didn't have clean papers for the flat, and finally, my firm cut off employees and lowered the salaries). Well this time I was really motivated to solve all the problems and finally I bought a flat. I did make a compromise tough: I had a limited budget, therefore the flat was a tiny one, but it was mine! I bought the flat in July, and we moved in a month later, ready to build our future over there.

The plan was to get married in August, but a serious liver issue put me to the hospital for ten days and changed my plans. I didn't panic, but I didn't feel great either. I had a few minuted of emotional crisis, but I have to point out I was the main comedian to my room mates in the hospital, forcing them to think of the ways to have fun while being there, instead of thinking of their medical problems. In a short time I had my knitting needled and a yard with me and stared playing with it. I hadn't knitted in a long time, so my knitting efforts didn't result with a garment, but at the time it was enough just to distract my thoughts from the health issues. The knitting promptly became the major attraction in my room, and all of my room mates started knitting too, each one according to their skills. It was great to see the change - all of a sudden the major problem was a knitting loop, instead of the clinical tests.

So here I am, months after I left the hospital, officially healthy, but I'm not the same. I still have problems with the immune system, I suffer from constant lack of energy, and I'm aware I don't look great. Additionally, I'm on a certain diet, and I'm not allowed exercise, which lead to gaining weight. It's sometimes frustrating (a couple of days ago I had a real drama in front of a mirror), but I have an unconditional support from my family and friends, and that means a lot. The situation is not ideal, but I am happy never the less.